Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Club to host a tour stop for the Triple Play Mobile Tour, which is getting youth active across the country this summer

Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows will host a tour stop for the Triple Play Mobile Tour, which is getting youth active across the country this summer. The tour will stop at the Neil Road site (3905 Neil Road, Reno), Thursday, July 9 at 10:30 a.m., to engage hundreds of kids in activities that will get them active and moving – all while working towards the goal of logging getting more than 10 million connections with kids.

Sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company and Amerigroup Foundation/Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, the mobile tour is part of the national program Triple Play, Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s signature health and wellness program. With more than 3 out of 10 young people considered obese or overweight, early education and active programming for youth is even more critical for a healthier tomorrow. Since its inception in 2005, Triple Play has made more than 9.2 million connections with kids and continues to grow with more programming for kids and Clubs each year. The tour is working towards this goal of 10 million connects by August 9.

The Triple Play program motivates kids to be healthy by providing nutrition and health education and more access to healthy foods, and encouraging avoidance of risky behaviors and a lifelong commitment to fitness. Through Triple Play, Clubs will build the next generation of leaders.

For more information about the Triple Play Mobile Tour visit www.tripleplaytour.com. For more information about the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows please call 775-331-KIDS (5437).

Message from Executive Director, Mike Wurm

Summer time is here! It has been an incredible start to what is sure to be an exciting and fun filled summer. At most of our seven Summer Camp sites, Clubs have opened to record numbers and we are only three weeks into the session! Staff have worked hard to put together a ‘Fun with a Purpose,’ action packed summer. At the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows, we keep kids learning throughout the year, so when summer is over, they are ready to go back to school without losing any learning momentum. Please take a moment to read in this newsletter, how our Summer BRAIN GAIN Program combats summer learning loss through intentional programming.

This June also marked the one year anniversary of the opening of the William N. Pennington Facility on Foster Drive. The staff at our newest facility has done a tremendous job of building a program the kids love to attend. Daily over 500 children and teens participate in a variety of programs and activities designed to keep them engaged and interested. We are thankful for the Pennington Foundation as well as the many other local foundations, corporations and individuals for supporting this project. After only one year there is no doubt this was a necessary and needed addition to the community.

Also, our mission to ‘reach the kids that need us most’ continues in our newest project. Over a year ago, we took over the operations of the Project Solution property on Bresson Avenue in Reno. Currently, we are exploring options to convert this property into a Boys & Girls Club. While much work has to be done, this facility has the potential to have the same impact on its community as the facility on Foster Drive has had. Please look for future information on how you may be able to help with this much needed project.

Again, please take a few minutes to look through the July addition of the Club Chronicle. I think you will be happy to see how your support is changing lives every day in the Truckee Meadows!

Each summer in America, an estimated 43 million children in the U.S. miss out on expanded learning opportunities that could prevent them from falling behind. During summer, most youth lose about two months’ worth of math skills. Low-income youth also lose more than two months’ worth of reading skills, while their middle-class peers make slight gains.

Summer learning losses can stack up from year to year, causing low-income children to fall further and further behind, ultimately endangering their chances of high school graduation. More than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities.

Close the Achievement Gap

Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows is committed to ensuring that area youth, especially those who need us most, graduate from high school on time with a plan for the future. That’s why we, in collaboration with Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), launched Summer Brain Gain—a summer learning loss prevention program developed specifically for Boys & Girls Clubs that allows our organization to integrate educational activities into our traditional summer schedule.

Summer Brain Gain is comprised of one-week modules with fun, themed activities for elementary, middle and high school students. Supported by Disney, each module takes a project-based learning approach: youth engage in a process of learning through discovery, creative expression, group work and a final project or production. A large emphasis of each module incorporates elements from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education that are appealing and interactive for members. As a result, kids develop higher-order thinking skills through the Summer Brain Gain modules while staying on track for the coming school year.

For more information about the Club’s Summer Brain Gain program please contact Casey Rogers, Director Program Development at (775) 360-2452 or email.

Maureena Jacinto, Club member and Leader in Training program participant at the Donald W. Reynolds Facility was recently named by Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) as a Cyber Safe Futures (CSF) Ambassador, funded by Sprint. Maureena will receive an honorarium of $500 for serving as the youth voice for cyber safety-related topics like cyberbullying, social networking, online privacy and mobile safety. Maureena will serve as a CSF Ambassador through August 31, 2015.

In her role as a CSF Ambassador Maureena will develop cyber safety content for myclubmylife.com (BGCA’s website for Club teens) and for CyberSafeFutures.org (BGCA’s public-facing safety resource website). The content may include questions for cyber safety teen polls, messaging for media safety video messages for teens, and answering cyber safety questions from parents during the month of June.